NEW YORK, – AT&T’s media-entertainment unit WarnerMedia is set to unveil significant jobs cuts in response to the economic impact on the sector from the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The report, citing unnamed sources, said the division is seeking to cut costs by up to 20 percent to cope with the drop in revenue from cinema, cable
subscriptions and TV ads. This could results in thousands of layoffs at Warner Bros. studios and TV operations which include HBO, TBS and TNT.

WarnerMedia, acquired by AT&T after it fended off an antitrust lawsuit from the US government, did not immediately respond to an AFP query.

The division recently launched its HBO Max streaming service as part of an effort to compete with established rivals Netflix and Amazon and new services from Walt Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal. AT&T has more than 240,000 employes but the company does not break down the
numbers by division.